It’s a fact that employee engagement is beneficial to all organizations. When employees are actively engaged with organizational objectives, this improves overall growth and sustainability. Mentorship programs can help drive employee engagement by bringing people together for professional development, which improves the culture and innovation of your business.

Don’t know where to start? In this blog, we’ll dive into the basics of how to launch a mentorship program that engages and inspires your workforce. Experience the impact of mentorship and the steps to design and manage a mentorship program that gives quantifiable outcomes. 

What is employee engagement?

Organizations worldwide continually struggle with employee engagement. In 2024, employee engagement hit a historical low with an added 4.8 million workers detached from their jobs. 

So, what is employee engagement, exactly? Employee engagement is the psychological investment that each employee makes in the mission and goals of your business. Positive employee engagement can boost productivity, retention, and an organization's brand reputation. Negative employee engagement results in poor performance, high turnover, and reduced organizational growth. 

Why is employee engagement important? A recent Gallup report indicated that as many as 50% of the adult workforce is disengaged from their employers’ mission and objectives—a problem that has a solution. Now is the perfect time to consider increasing your team's engagement. Mentorship and peer-to-peer learning can support a more engaged workforce. 

The benefits of employee engagement

The importance of employee engagement can not be understated when it comes to the success of your organization. Employees actively engaged at work and mentorship programs often demonstrate improved attitudes, more confidence, and a deeper connection with colleagues. All of these aspects benefit your organization’s ability to attract and develop talent to produce favorable outcomes. 

How to drive employee engagement through mentorship

Mentorship has a powerful impact on employee engagement levels. This process should be at the heart of employee engagement strategies. Mentoring has been proven to improve trust between managers and their teams, supporting a more positive work culture. Mentoring can provide direct information and skills transfer, which in turn leads to more empowered employees. When employees connect with well-matched mentors, they feel more confident that their abilities are being honored.  

How is it possible to drive employee engagement through mentorship? Learn how to design a mentorship program for maximum employee engagement. 

Design your program for engagement

Certain factors are needed to design a mentorship program to increase the engagement of your workforce. These include: 

Accessibility

A mentorship program must be accessible for all employees and mentors. Your program should be inclusive, intuitive, and simple to interface with. It should be easy to register in the mentorship program. Mentors and mentees should be carefully matched and have a convenient way to schedule mentoring sessions. When the mentorship program is created, promote your program using multiple methods can reach more participants. Integrate the membership software with your Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to give participants fast access to this resource. 

Flexibility

It’s essential to create a mentorship program that fits your employees’ time and commitments well. This helps them to make mentoring a regular part of their work life. Maintaining a flexible mentoring program includes a scheduling system that supports varying meeting frequencies and lengths. The best mentoring programs leverage different program types depending on participant needs. For example, you may choose mentoring formats like onboarding cohorts, evergreen, and group programs. 

Customization

Customizing the mentorship experience not only makes it more personalized but also helps to make it more meaningful to both mentors and mentees. Personalized agendas give mentorship program participants more control over their time and the goals they’d like to focus on. Carefully matching mentors with mentees produces more favorable results; therefore, a detailed system for creating match preferences should be implemented.

Multiple programs 

Leveraging multiple mentorship programs creates more opportunities for engagement. A wide range of programs can increase the chances that people will connect by providing direct access to the most beneficial matches. These options expand the world of mentors and mentees, giving them more ways to learn from each other. This creates a more open and supportive environment in which to engage with others in the organization. 

Optimize mentor/mentee matching

Once you have designed a mentorship program for better employee engagement, there are some key ways to optimize mentor-mentee matching. Pairing mentors with the right mentees improves the chances of a positive relationship developing. According to Oxford University research, mentor-pairing can improve the overall potential for professional growth. 

With this said, the mentor/mentee matching experience should be fast and accurate to gain the most traction from your program. Instead of using an outdated and often frustrating process of trying to coordinate your mentorship program, mentor matching software is vastly better. Why?

• Mentoring software provides a quick and easy way for mentors and mentees to connect on their terms. 
• It eliminates program tasks like managing complicated spreadsheets, calendars, and multiple emails.
• Software can accurately match people based on unique characteristics, knowledge, skills, personality, time availability, and more. 
• Mentor matching software provides metrics which can help evaluate employee engagement scores. 

Collect and analyze feedback

The most successful mentoring programs include surveys to gather feedback from participants. This is important because this feedback can be utilized to improve the program. Feedback can also provide added insight into what creates active engagement in employees and what obstacles stand in the way. Using this information, leaders can analyze this data to help drive engagement with mentorship. 

Timing matters when collecting feedback from mentoring program survey questions. It is recommended to plan for this somewhere at the midpoint of a mentoring relationship to give mentors and mentees enough time to experience the program's value. Once the mentorship has been completed, gather feedback from participants, as they can also share their results and ideas to help improve and inspire others to engage with the mentorship program. 

Drive participation through events

Create awareness and drive participation in your mentorship program with company events. How can you launch successful mentorship events to promote engagement? A few ideas to consider include:

• Program kickoff events - Give your mentors and mentees a great start! They can learn more about program benefits and responsibilities and how to make the most of this opportunity. 
• Open office hours - Give mentorship participants (and would-be participants) a chance to speak with each other to ask questions and seek guidance. Gather feedback to make improvements and offer support with the mentorship software. 
• Mentoring expert panels - This is a great time for mentors and mentees to shine. Invite those who are active participants to share their wealth of knowledge and experiences in lunch-and-learns and other fun events. 
• Graduation parties - Recognition and celebrating engagement in mentorship activities enhances the program, leading to more interest and involvement. 

Using Together’s events tool, you can easily create and automate mentorship events. Send out invitations, host virtual live events, and more to get the most out of your program. 

Recognize and award mentorship achievements

Recognizing the achievements of those who engage in mentorship activities leads to more interest and involvement. A changing workplace makes it especially necessary to focus on employee engagement as a business strategy. It is important to reward mentors and mentees for their commitment to growing professionally. Doing so can raise employee morale and engagement, leading to a positive and productive workplace culture. 

A SHRM and Workforce study revealed that nearly 90% of companies believe that publicly recognizing employees increases their engagement. Employee recognition and rewards go beyond the words “good job” or a movie ticket. Today, people like to be openly recognized for their efforts with shareable badges and certificates from Together. Digital certificates connect mentorship participation to career progression. Those who complete mentorship as part of their training can proudly display their achievements with formal certification. Badges can be added to email signatures, social media profiles, and other professional assets to inspire others to get involved with your mentorship initiative. 

Mentorship is the key to employee engagement and organizational excellence. By choosing the right mentorship program solution, a company can become sustainable and innovative. 

Ready to learn more? 

Be sure to watch the recording of our Mentorship Masterclass: Driving Program Engagement, featuring Together’s Nathan Goldstein, Head of Product & Co-Founder and Mateo Peralta, Account Manager. They shared top tips, tactics, and tools to help you create and grow a highly engaging mentorship program. And if you’d like to learn more about how Together can enable a mentorship program that connects people and drives impact, book a demo with us today. 

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